Calming Down

"Whew..."

The infirmary's front door opened, and Xu Ye walked out calmly, pistol in hand.

Standing out front with a cannon on her shoulder, He Li flashed a bright smile when she saw Xu Ye. The badge on his chest told everyone what had happened.

"All right, don't stress yourself out. Leave the Eternal Church to the captain. Besides, the Eighth Team has plenty of bad blood with them too. Relax."

"Mission accomplished, flawlessly~"

He Li put away her cannon.

Xu Ye's eyelid twitched. "What if I hadn't managed it just now?"

He Li gave him a wicked smile.

Xu Ye shuddered. This crazy woman... was she planning to blast the whole building flat?

"Brother Ye, thanks for all your hard work. I've got a bottle of water here. You must be tired after fighting for so long. Sit down, quick. I'll massage your legs." Lu Mingwang swept over like the wind.

???

Xu Ye was utterly baffled.

"Actually, Brother Ye, we've dealt with each other before." He forcibly sat Xu Ye down on the steps and began kneading his legs.

"During that exam, remember how I paid you a thousand for the answers? You passed them to me during the exam without a second thought."

"But then I resold them to other people and made a tidy two thousand."

"I never got the chance to thank you."

"..."

Xu Ye had absolutely no idea what to say.

"Little Wangwang, do you know what that makes you?" He Li asked disdainfully.

"A bootlicker!"

"He Li, how can you say that?" Lu Mingwang turned toward her, his tone righteous. "I'm a high-class bootlicker. Brother Ye's so strong, of course I'm going to suck up to him. What's wrong with that?"

"That way, he'll look out for me a little more on future missions."

"Besides, we're heading to training camp together in a month."

He Li opened her mouth.

Her gaze instantly sharpened.

This brat's already working the angles faster than I am!

With her experience, she could naturally tell that Xu Ye was growing at an astonishing rate.

Even Awakened with the same Sequence Talent could differ enormously in strength.

Someone with spiritual sensitivity as high as Xu Ye's would probably develop his Sequence Talent very quickly and reach its full potential in a short time. He might awaken a Sequence 8 talent in less than six months.

"Little Yeye, I don't have much to offer you. Just this body, and lots and lots and lots of money."

He Li pressed herself against him and kneaded his shoulders.

"How about you get together with me?"

[I failed to resist temptation. Faced with an enormous fortune and enormous "assets," I surrendered completely.]

[He Li and I got together. I lived a life free of worries about food and clothing. Three months later, He Li became pregnant.]

[Six months later, Night Spirit City blew up. Fortunately, I was at training camp rather than in the city. He Li also escaped the disaster because she had come to visit me.]

[We were devastated.]

[Fortunately, happy news soon eased our sorrow.]

[Seven months after He Li and I got together, she gave birth to our son.]

[The doctor said that because I was an Awakened, I could very well have caused the premature birth. Looking at my son, who weighed a full eight jin, I smiled with relief.]

[Three years later, the child looked less and less like me. I secretly got a DNA test. He wasn't mine.]

[I was heartbroken, but Lu Mingwang comforted me, saying that at least my wife was mine. I was convinced.]

[Another six months later, my wife wasn't mine either.]

[I understood then. She was a queen of players. I should have released her back into the ocean instead of trapping her in my little pond.]

"?"

As he read the information surfacing in his mind, a huge question mark slowly rose above Xu Ye's head.

Alice laughed even louder.

Lu Mingwang protested when he heard He Li's offer. "Brother Ye, don't listen to her. She was just feeling me up! Actually, once I reach Sequence 8, I wouldn't mind splitting off a female secondary personality."

With that, he struck a bashful pose.

"Pfft!"

Xu Ye sprayed a mouthful of water all over Lu Mingwang's face.

How had he never noticed just how shameless this guy was?

"Have some decency!" He Li scolded with a laugh.

"The moment I entered this line of work, I knew I could die at any time. If I'm about to lose my life, what do I need shame for?" Lu Mingwang declared with magnificent righteousness.

"You're a disgrace to the Eighth Team."

"Actually... I could transfer to the Ninth Team."

"How are you even more shameless than me? Were you hiding when humanity evolved?"

"Back at you!"

Xu Ye watched the pair speechlessly, but a faint smile crept onto his lips. He suddenly remembered that his closest friends in his previous life had bantered like this too.

He had only crossed over a few days ago, yet the memories of his previous life felt so very distant.

Unless he deliberately recalled them, Xu Ye almost felt as though he had been born in this world.

"Wang Yong..."

His gaze swept across the area and landed on the boy sitting dazedly in the middle of the huge crater.

He looked desolate.

The staff had taken his mother's body away for special handling as well.

Barring any complications, Wang Yong would also be temporarily isolated and examined. Once they confirmed he was free of pollution, his memories would be erased, and he would begin living a normal life.

"How do they usually erase memories?" Xu Ye suddenly asked.

He Li explained casually, "There are special drugs, and hypnotists assist with the process. Those hypnotists have Sequence Talents related to psychology and the mind."

"For major pollution incidents like this, they generally hypnotize the witnesses and turn their memories into earthquakes, gas explosions, fires, and so on."

"Take Wang Yong, for instance. He'll probably remember his mother jumping into a river and dying, with her body never being found."

A fire?

For some reason, Xu Ye thought of the family of this body's original owner.

Hadn't that been a fire too?

Outside the school, on the rooftop of a nearby office building.

The wind whipped fiercely.

"It's over. I didn't expect the Eternal Church to be involved." Meng Chengfei, his eyes gentle, raised an eyebrow and softly closed the Little Red Book in his hand.

"You really do care about that kid. Sneaking out here alone to watch over him-you were afraid something would happen to him, weren't you?"

Beside Meng Chengfei, a mature woman with short hair sat on the railing, her long legs dangling in the air, a dizzying sight.

Her voice was husky, with a slightly magnetic quality.

She idly folded a white paper airplane, her eyes drifting toward Meng Chengfei from time to time.

"Nuo, aren't you here too, as captain of the Eighth Team?" Meng Chengfei smiled amiably at her, his eyes unruffled.

"As if I care about that brat Lu Mingwang. I only came to keep you company." Ye Qingnuo tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, radiating charm.

"But you seem awfully invested in that kid. Aren't you worried he really is a land mine Doctor Chen planted? That doctor may not be a bad person, but you can't exactly call him a good one either."

"He's very close to the Wastelanders out in the Wasteland."

Meng Chengfei smiled without answering.

"If it weren't for that incident, you'd probably be at Sequence 6 by now. Handling the Eternal Church would be more than easy enough." Ye Qingnuo sighed as she looked at the man before her.

"But this time, I'll help you. Once we find the Eternal Holy Book, we'll wipe them all out in one fell swoop."

"...Also... have you really never considered settling down and starting a family...?" Ye Qingnuo's face flushed scarlet, and she bit her lip.

Just then, the rooftop door opened.

"Boss, bad news! That old man FKC-067 has already destroyed a camp in the Wasteland..." A young man hurried up the stairs.

"Xiao Chu," Ye Qingnuo said with a gentle smile.

"Hm?"

"Can't you see I'm trying to land a man here? I'm already thirty-five! What the hell do I care whether that old man dies or not?" Ye Qingnuo exploded.

The young team member froze for a long moment, then quietly drifted away.

But when Ye Qingnuo turned back around, the rooftop was already empty.

She gave a wry chuckle, shook her head, lit a cigarette, and narrowed her eyes as she exhaled deeply.

"You've been running away for ten years now."